Once he got on the field for the La Liga club, the El Tri midfielder made a difference while the forward is adjusting well to life in Spain
Were you worried, Mexico fans? Worry no longer.
Hector Herrera entered the week with a total of zero minutes for Atletico Madrid but emerged having played in two matches for Los Colchoneros, scoring his first Atleti goal in the Champions League and helping the club to a pair of draws.
“HH” entered as a substitute in a midweek match with Juventus and found the back of the net, leaping in the box to head the ball in for a stoppage-time equalizer. That performance helped earn him a start in La Liga play Saturday, with the Baja California native playing an hour of Atleti’s draw with Celta de Vigo.
On the other side of that match, Nestor Araujo was in the starting XI for Celta and played the whole match as a left center back.
Elsewhere in Spain, it hasn’t taken Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez long to get up and running with Sevilla. He scored a beautiful free kick in Thursday’s Europa League match against Qarabag, then came in for a cameo against his former club Real Madrid this weekend. He wasn’t able to get the opener for Sevilla as the team fell off the top of La Liga with a 1-0 loss to Los Blancos.
It seems only the Mexicans at Real Betis don’t have something to celebrate, with Andres Guardado substituted from a scoreless draw against Osasuna and Diego Lainez an unused substitute in that match.
Jesus “Tecatito” Corona was involved in both Porto‘s 2-1 win over Young Boys in the Europa League and a 2-1 domestic triumph against Santa Clara. He assisted the winning goal in Thursday’s game and was back at right back in the weekend match but came off as a substitute after 76 minutes of play.
While Hirving Lozano started for Napoli during the week in a Champions League victory over Liverpool, he came on for the final 15 minutes of Carlo Ancelotti side’s 4-1 thrashing of Lecce in Serie A play on Saturday.
PSV and Ajax played out a 1-1 draw in one of the marquee Eredivisie clashes of the year. Edson Alvarez played all 90 minutes for Ajax in midfield, getting his name in the book in the 55th minute.
Erick Gutierrez made the bench in the match but hasn’t played since suffering a broken hand with the national team in the September window.
It was another tough week for Raul Jimenez and Wolves, with the Premier League side falling to Braga in the Europa League during the week and having to rally for a draw at Crystal Palace in league play. Jimenez started both matches but scored in neither and was substituted from the latter contest.
The majority of Mexicans playing in Europe will be in action again during the week, with La Liga, the Eredivisie and Serie A having a round of midweek games, and English and Portuguese teams in cup action.
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